In A Rehearsal for 80 hours
by Flashryan
Summary: What happens when you have the North Mesquite Drumline in a rehearsal for 80 hours? Insanity, energy drinks and many more things!
1. Hour One

**In A Rehearsal for 80 Hours**

**A/N:** Inspired by our recent rehearsal and the movie _Around the World in 80 Days_. It was a 12 hour rehearsal! From 8 pm to 8 am. If any of you have had an experience like this, review this please. Just some background info, I am in pit and play vibes (yeah!) and part of the North Mesquite Drumline. Yeah! Of course I'll substitute names for the real people. I don't want to actually make fun of them. Or maybe I do……….but the school name will be the same. Oh and by the way, if you haven't guessed, this will be 80 chapters long, or I might combine a few hours together or something, I don't know I'm still going along as I see it. So……ON WITH IT NOW!

**Hour One – 12:00 noon**

Whether by madness or because they thought the drumline needed it, the director and his pit tech assistant of the drumline had announced that the drumline were to have an 80 hour rehearsal for the up and coming drumline competition. Joseph, a senior in pit who played Vibes 1, (gee who's that? Lol!) was one of the first that arrived in the band hall.

Already in the band hall were some of the freshman pit players and a sophomore. Joseph saw his director in the band office, Mr. Kollens, along with the pit tech, Mr. Mason, sitting in their seats discussing something. On the band white board, the hourly schedule was posted. After a few minutes the rest of the drumline came in and Mr. Kollens and Mr. Mason told them to sit down on the floor.

The drumline, consisting of 4 snares, 3 quads, 5 basses, and 17 pit members sat all congregated and talking amongst themselves as Mr. Kollens and Mr. Mason made their way to the front of the circle. The drumline quieted down and listened in.

"Good to see your all here today, if you hadn't noticed by now, the rehearsal schedule is posted behind me and we'll follow it as best as we can. This is only a guide so we'll know what to do if we get off track."

As he took roll, and spoke his name, Joseph turned around when hearing mumbling and turned to see Brittany's back to him.

'Is she talking on her phone?' he thought to himself.

Brittany was white, with red hair and a girl, so she was given some criticism about being only a sophomore and was the head snare and drum line captain, if she was caught………

Being a little bit of a sadist, Joseph chuckled to himself.

Then Mr. Kollens stopped talking.

Silence filled the room and Brittany was still mumbling but suddenly stopped, seeing everyone's eyes on her, including Mr. Kollens.

"Are you on your phone?" Mr. Kollens asked sternly.

She turned her head and looked at him. Left hand holding a phone, Joseph noticed, hiding it from Mr. Kollens.

"No…"

The other members of the drumline began to chuckle, including Joseph.

"What's in your hand?" Mr. Kollens asks.

"Nothing." she replies.

"Lying to me….AND talking while I'm talking…" Mr. Kollens said, his voice raising.

"That's two lies…" Butch, junior Quad leader spoke.

"Who are you talking to?" Mr. Kollens said quickly, irritated.

"Do you really have to know?" Brittany said softly.

Mr. Kollens scoffed and put a hand to his head.

"See me in the office when we're done with this meeting."

Joseph heard Brittany say goodbye and I'll call you back and the meeting started again.

After the meeting was adjourned, the battery headed outside and the pit set up in the band hall. Joseph knew this was either not going to end well, or it'll be the craziest three days and 8 hours of fun.

**End Hour One**


	2. Hour Two and Three

In A Rehearsal for 80 Hours

A/N: I will answer or reply to your reviews if you have any questions, comments, blah. The usual.

**Hour Two and Three 1:00pm**

After the equipment was set up, the pit began to warm up. The warm up only consisted of the 4 marimbas, 4 vibes, xylophone, and timpani. The accessory players went into the percussion room to "practice". Joseph and the others pulsed with their section leader, Dave, who pulsed 5 6 7 8 and we pulsed 7 8, the rhythm in their hearts and minds, slowly bringing them together when………

Dave was tall and white, but even being section leader and a senior himself, didn't always act like one. He played Marimba 1.

Just as they were about to strike the first note, someone got in early. Mr. Mason stopped them.

"Remember guys, anticipate the first strike. Try it again…" Mr. Mason grabbed a pair of sticks from his bag and clicked them off, but they still focused on Dave and pulsed along with him.

5 6 7 8……

7 8……

All together as they began the first warm up. Minutes flew by and did tempos. Throughout the 2-mallet warm-ups and up until we get through the 2 mallet packet, then we stop. Tempos now soar to 200, our mallets flying, but we're not together.

"Relax, put the tension on the back part of the fingers, and let them do the work. We continue on and then………..

Mr. Mason gets a smile on his face as the last time we hit the mark and end up together and play as one instrument.

"Good job guys, ok take a short break and in the next hour we're going to start on our 4 mallet warm up packet…and the run."

Joseph sighed as he heard the news. Right now, the "run" was at 200 bpms, and was played with 4 mallets; the pit hadn't gotten it together ever since they first got the music. The run was 5 measures of 16th note chords/single notes jammed together and played at 200bpms.

In the hall as the group sat down, some taking drinks, Dave sat down and Jessica sat down next to him and put an arm around him and he put his arm over her shoulder.

'Those two…' Joseph said to himself, chuckling a bit.

Jessica was sighing and Dave was silent. Lopez, the second in command of the marimba section, who was Mexican, just got a drink of water. Joseph remembered when he was section leader, Lopez and him had always pushed each other and "trained" each other to get faster.

Lopez walked back inside to practice, and Joseph knew that when Dave and he left, Lopez would probably be in charge, or Jessica. Jessica was there the longest as much as Lopez and she was more experienced at a Vibraphone more than Joseph. Joseph was taken off Marimba his senior year, and he was furious until Mr. Mason told him that he needed Joseph on the part, for the sake of the Vibes, and he immediately straightened up about it.

Joseph listened to Taylor, the tall white sophomore boy also on the Vibes talking to Ronald, the annoying "redneck" of the accessory pit members. Joseph never liked Ronald, somehow Ronald always found a way to get under Joseph's skin and annoy the heck out of him.

They were cracking jokes along with Silent Bob, a white sophomore, or so we nicknamed him because he hardly spoke when he first came into the drumline.

Mr. Mason stepped out into the hall and called them back in.

The accessory pit members went into the percussion room and "practiced" some more and the group gathered 4 mallets in each hand.

They went through the warm-ups as usual and then got to the run…….

"Ok, we'll take it very slow and try to get up to tempo." Mr. Mason said, starting to click his sticks.

They started off at 90bpms…

The first time was horrible, and it wasn't looking good.

They got it faster when they finally got it together, or at least, semi-together. The ending part of the run sounded horrible, but it was because most didn't learn the notes and went along with Dave, to try and match him. Mr. Mason however didn't seem to notice.

After the huge run, the group took another break when they got it up to final tempo.

**End Hour Two and Three**

**A/N:** Yes, slow I know but it'll get better. Promise.


	3. Hour Four, Five, and Six

In A Rehearsal for 80 Hours

A/N: Yes, thanks to my reviewers for reviewing this. To:

PuddingBandit: Wow, I'm sorry to hear about your rehearsal, I feel sorry that you had to do that several times.

Band Idolizer: Yes, this is the North Mesquite Drumline from Texas.

Ok, on with the story.

**Hour Four, Five, and Six 3:00 pm**

As the group came back, it was time to practice the music. The music this year was called "Transformations" and it consisted of three parts. (Technically Four, but I'm lazy) There is part 1A, 1B, 2, and 3.

Aside from the warm-up group, the other instruments consisted of Bass Drum and Gong, 2 synthesizer keyboards, and various other small equipment.

Mr. Mason came to them.

"Sorry, pit. The battery is coming in and going to go along with us for the moment and they're warming up so go ahead and sit and wait patiently. No talking!" he said the last part sternly.

Joseph let a smirk cross his face as the battery began to come in a set up. Jessica took out her music and looked over it, Dave walked over and sat by her, and Lopez sat on the ground then stretched out and started to sleep. Taylor went over to Katrina, the last vibe player. She was white and a sophomore and very…skinny, which made for the fact that she couldn't keep up most of the time. She often complained about her problems and had an open mind. (No offense to her, I'm just explaining things!)

Taylor sat by Katrina and started talking to her, and from where Joseph was sitting he could tell she was griping about her finger again.

'She really needs to grow up.' Joseph said to himself.

Ronald, Silent Bob, a small freshman boy, Kane, and another freshman named Bill. Bill couldn't do much, seeing as he was hit by a cop in his arm. The cop "didn't see him coming" as Bill was obeying the rules and crossing the street when he was supposed to.

Nathan, a heavyset Indian sophomore, sat in the back by himself, uttering things Joseph didn't care to know.

Jackie, a white sophomore, sat next to her marimba, leaning against it. Then there was Laura, a freshman girl who played the last marimba.

The two synthesizer players, Sheila and Jeff, Mexican and Black, both freshmen, sat down and did nothing but sleep. Last but not least, Cecil and Kalvin, Cecil a freshman and Kalvin a junior, sat by themselves over behind one of the concert bass drums.

Joseph grew bored a perusing the crowd, until he listened to the battery playing of their cadences. The drumline altogether was very good and played clean most of the time. This particular cadence was played in the stands at football games often, and loved by many who heard it. It is that way because some say that the band songs do nothing for the crowds. Only the drumline provide a beat for the band, and that's what it's been like for how long Joseph never knew. Joseph sat for a while, the beat of the drumline mixing imaginary beats in his head. Taylor came over and sat next to Joseph and told him a joke, but Joseph didn't really laugh, he was busy thinking about important things.

"Alright pit, get up." Mr. Mason said as the last of the drumline cadences were done and their warm-up complete.

"Change in plans, we're going outside for a while. Spence, go get the tarp and bring it outside on the cart." Mr. Kollens said.

Spence nodded and headed towards the locker rooms.

The pit began to move their instruments outside and into the parking lot, but not before hitting the door with some instruments and also riding on them as Joseph witnessed Taylor doing as he zoomed by. The pit set up, and the tarp was brought out.

"Butch! Get the tarp undone and stretch it across this line." Mr. Kollens shouted to him from atop the conductor's tower.

Butch nodded and called everyone to get the tarp off the cart. When they pulled if off the cart, they had to unroll it.

"Alright, some people stand on this side, and everyone else stand on the other side."

They all nodded and Butch nodded to them to pull the first layer back. They pulled it out until it was ¾ of the way undone when they noticed that the side they march on was underneath.

Everyone started to talk as Mr. Kollens and Mr. Mason left to get something.

"Get the other side and turn it around!" the 2nd bass player, Brandon, a dark colored Indian boy shouted.

Several ran under the tarp and Joseph and the others laughed as they began to run through and begin to turn in right side up.

"Ok pull!" Butch shouted from underneath the tarp.

The group pulled and realized that the people under the tarp started screaming/laughing as they were pulled with the tarp.

"What are ya'll doing?" Mr. Kollens shouted as Butch got out from under the tarp.

At that moment so did the others who were underneath it. As the tarp was set up, the pit put their instruments on it and the battery lined up for the first set.

"Alright battery, go from the 1st set to page…" he said as he paused, looking for a place to stop.

"…23. Stop on the snare solo."

They all nodded as Mr. Mason grabbed the Lone Ranger metronome and turned it on, the tempo at 160. Right as they turned on the met, it picked some radio station and started playing songs on it.

"What the?" Mr. Kollens said.

Mr. Mason fiddled with the thing as Joseph and the others snickered and laughed.

"Stay set; it's just a simple distraction!" Mr. Kollens said.

After they reset the frequency, they got back to getting this started. They counted off and they were gone!

The pit, stood there, waiting for the opening snare solo by Brittany start them off, then the rest of the battery joined in…….then the pit came in 3 measures later. The pit flew through several 4 mallet pieces and played magnificently, obvious by the fact that Mr. Mason was happy that they were finally together for once.

"Good pit keep it up! More emotion!" Mr. Mason shouted.

"Sell it!" he shouted some more.

The pit rose to a good 15" with arm when the first of the set hits were played. The pit had several small runs leading up to the big long run at the end of 1B and 3, and the battery stopped playing as the pit solo began. All the way from the bottom of the mallet instruments to the top as the pit solo went, but it still wasn't together!

The music past swiftly, and they eventually reached page 23, the end of Movement 1B.

"Pit…watch the runs, relax. You guys look like it's the hardest thing in the world!" Mr. Mason said.

"Oh and battery…" Mr. Mason said as Mr. Kollens was looking at and studying the music.

The battery all looked at him.

"…play clean!"

**End Hours 4, 5, and 6**


	4. Hour Seven and Eight

In A Rehearsal for 80 Hours

A/N: Yes, thanks to my reviewers for reviewing this. To:

Phoenixfeather49: I'm glad I'm not the only one doing 12 hour rehearsals…

class-of '06 rulz: That's really cool. YAY for vibes!

Anyways…sorry for the long update sooo much later than I expected. Plano Drumline Competition.

In case you're wondering how we did…..

1st Place in our division

1st Place in overall (outscored everyone that performed)

Drop6 award (given only when all three judges agree that the music was original and played really well, and only given to ONE drumline. Last one was given in 2000.)

1st place Best Bass Line

2nd place Best Snare Line

And…….1ST PLACE FRONT ENSEMBLE!

Ok…..sorry about gloating…..on with the story.

**Hour Seven and Eight-7:00 pm**

After about another thirty minutes of practice, Mr. Kollens and Mr. Mason said to pack up and go get dinner.

Now Joseph was planning on going to the local mall, Kane and Nathan came along because Joseph usually hung out with them.

As they crossed the street, several cars honked wildly as they ran across, laughing to themselves as they ran by.

"So, Turtle (as Joseph was known throughout the pit and drumline and band) you going to Chevron to get some energy drinks?" Kalvin asked.

"Nah, I have a feeling Bill and the others will get them…I'm not too much into energy drinks anyway."

"Hey, what are you going to eat, Turtle?" Nathan asked.

"I'm looking at Chinese, we'll all meet somewhere around there, alright?" Joseph said.

The other two nodded as they walked off. As Joseph sat down with his food, he mumbled something about the drinks not being free for refills.

Jeff was walking by and Joseph called him over.

"Hey Jeff, who you with?"

"I'm here with Laura, and she's going to get Chick-Fil-A."

As Nathan and Kane sat down, Laura joined them.

Shouting was heard coming from the first floor, Joseph and the others were on the food court floor, the third. They looked over the rail to see Ronald and Silent Bob running from some black guy, laughing as they ran.

"Those two…."

"Are idiots." Laura said laughing as the others did too.

"So, you guys like the music?"

"Eh, it's ok." Laura said.

"I hate my synth part, it's not fun." Jeff said.

"Halfway playing marimba isn't all that great either in the third movement." Kane added.

"Well…….I guess you guys complain too much then." Joseph said chuckling to himself.

"So you guys going to homecoming?" Joseph asked.

"I'm not." Kane said.

"Yeah…with my girlfriend." Jeff said.

"Maybe…" said Laura said.

"I don't know…" Nathan.

After a while of eating, and still with an hour left to do whatever, they headed back. When they got into the band hall, Joseph could see Ronald, Taylor, and Silent Bob laughing their butts off.

Joseph came over to them.

"Turtle! Turtle! Get this!" Ronald said laughing hysterically.

"What?"

"Ronald walks into this one store and goes up to this one black guy and says 'What's up gangsta?' in like a British accent, and it pissed him off!" Taylor said, laughing.

"Then he like, gets out from behind the counter and starts to chase us, it was hilarious!" Ronald said.

"Dude remember this Chinese guy we pissed off at the movies?" Taylor said shouting and laughing.

Joseph walked away, hanging his head in shame as to the fact that he knew these guys.

Bill came over, chugging his fifth energy drink of the night.

"Aren't you feeling the effects yet?" Joseph asked smirking.

"Nah dude, I'm used to them, so I have to drink more to get hyper." he said, chuckling.

Joseph shook his head laughing and went to his vibe. Bored out of his mind, he began to play the one song from Star Wars Episode II.

Dave came by and asked what it was.

"Its Star Wars dude, don't you know?"

"Moronic bastard." Joseph whispered under his breath.

"What did you say!" Dave said laughing.

"I'm just playing fool!" Joseph said acting like a black guy.

Jackie was sitting at her marimba doing homework, others weren't back yet, and Jessica was going into the dark locker room with Dave.

"Wait, what?" Joseph said to himself.

'Oh great.' he said chuckling to himself at the realization.

When all the battery and pit came back, Mr. Kollens and Mr. Mason said to split up.

"Vibes, in the locker room. Accessory guys in the percussion room. Marimbas are out here. Go!" Mr. Mason said, walking back into the office.

"Battery, do the same!" Mr. Kollens said.

Joseph knew this wasn't good. Whenever they split up like this, the Vibes always got into arguments about who is right and wrong about notes or runs or other crap. Joseph moved his vibes into the locker room and the others did the same.

'Good luck to us.' Joseph said to himself.

**End Hours 7 and 8**


End file.
